Aragorn's Tax Policy & Lack of Orc Genocide - Countering Martin's Intellectual Dishonesty

Here's my essay about Martin's ridiculous intellectually dishonest question attacking Aragorn.
#fantasy #lotr #tolkien
Essay: canadiancultur...

[@dungeontales8117]

When i was young I found the tax policy question intriguing. As I've gotten older, I've realized it doesn't matter. Lord of the rings is a story about distinctly separate groups of people coming together to defeat a great evil through self sacrifice and small mercies. GoT/ASoIF is a story about honor getting you killed, love compromising you in the line of duty and how the ruling class will never treat the lower peoples fairly. The solutions to the problems in his story are not small mercies. They are violence, lack of humanity/empathy and backstabbing. He has created a world where values that he espouses will never work to end the story, if he finishes it. I firmly believe that this was a marketing ploy to deconstruct Tolkien and sell the books and show. When you tackle the thought experiment, it goes nowhere. With all that said, i hope GRRM completes the song. Though cruel and morbid, It is gripping if nothing else.

[@TheBrothersArda]

His world is meaningless and about meaninglessness and about deconstructing everything that Tolkien built up, but not only that about deconstructing the values of Chivalry and Honour. Tbh I don't care if he finishes his story and never found it gripping.

[@Solitary_Scribe55]

@@TheBrothersArda Personally I find Martin and his "stories" to be a kind of microcosm of everything wrong with modern/post-modern society. I'm not religious per se but to me there is something overtly Satanic about that vile bastard and his works.

[@Gravelgratious]

George's reasoning is that there is never simply a "happily every after", especially in such an immense world as Tolkien made in Middle- Earth, only a to be continued. George was not satisfied with the appendices is my take.

[@TheBrothersArda]

Because he's a postmodernist who is deliberately playing stupid in order to undermine Tolkien.

[@dashsocur]

Good summary, I've never understood the fixation that Martin and his fans have with tearing down Tolkien. What's wrong with having different fictional settings exist in isolation?

[@reidparker1848]

They tend to be nihilistic, cynical materialists, who despise Christian-inspired morals/settings.

[@squamish4244]

It makes them feel superior. We are the naive dreamers, they are the grounded realists. Also, I have found most hardcore ASOIAF fans are incapable of literary analysis. Such as the shocking idea that you can't meaningfully compare these two stories, they are very different kinds of stories with different goals. Aragorn's tax policy just wasn't interesting to Tolkien. Economics wasn't interesting. Nobody ever spends money in Middle Earth. That just wasn't a thing for him. Just as Martin doesn't spend much time on linguistics. His language development is the most basic he can get away with while still making his world believable. And he is all about politics. His cosmic themes have barely gone anywhere yet. Etc.

[@TheBrothersArda]

@@squamish4244 I'm pretty sure money is spent in Tolkien's world he goes into some detail on Bilbo's finances or at least into establishing his economic position in the Shire, and then from there Frodo's. The thing is though that it is set into the background to the story while the story itself is placed in the foreground or so it seemed to me. But you make a good point about that hardly interesting Tolkien.

[@reidparker1848]

It's the Rick and Morty, fedora atheist "realist" (nihilist) crowd disliking the idealistic Christian work.

[@joeschmo4646]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@reidparker1848bro you guys are the ones still talking about something Martin said in an interview like 10 fucking years ago. Most ASOIAF fans love LOTR.

[@troffle]

"Educational"? This is *revelatory*. It's crude to say, but f*** that Martin. And your Substack article *deeply* appreciated. Your thoroughness is beautiful. Thank you.

[@TheBrothersArda]

Appreciate your kindly words, I've written other articles over there of a more proper LOTR leaning and Conan leaning. As fantasy is my passion after all so if you like that stuff do check it out.

[@toolazy2thinkofname]

Bobby B's economy is run by Littlefinger and he kept taxes low by borrowing money, leading to the Iron Bank to get involved is Clash and Dance. Bobby B put him in place due to John Arryn's recommendation, which really comes through his wife Lyssa who is head-over-heals love in with Littlefinger.

[@ardalwinterborn]

I find Eddings to be the absolute worst take on Tolkien. I enjoyed Eddings writings as a younger man, but his style has grown dated in my opinion. Altho Moorcock is a strong second in this regard.

[@sebastianrubin7476]

Absolutely agree. I came back to Belgarion as an adult, and I didn't make it through the first book. And I'm a Warhammer fan! My bar for "acceptable" is literally a tripping hazard in hell.

[@thesenate1844]

In an alternate interpretation, the Orcs can be seen not as an entirely seperate race, but just regular humans native to the east who have been thoroughly dehumanized by centuries of racism, and the stories of Lord of the Rings are a heavily mythologized account of what really happened. Perhaps there were Orc minority communities all over Middle Earth but persecutions by the free peoples led to them fleeing back to Mordor where they would be safe.

[@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115]

>JRRMartin >Intellectual Pick one...

[@InvertedWIng]

They're not mutually exclusive. In my experience, intellectuals are most decidedly NOT intelligent. They're people who tell the rest of us what we should know, how we should live, and how the world should work while they never set foot outside their academies and ivory towers.

[@codytierson845]

Excellent!